Chinese presidential delegation tied to Africa ivory trade

A plane carrying China’s president was used to smuggle ivory out of Tanzania after his visit to Africa last year, a London-based non-profit body claims.

Their latest report implicates military and diplomatic officials in President Xi Jinping’s delegation in the purchase of illegal ivory during a March 2013 Africa visit. Members of the delegation procured so much illegal ivory, the report says, that local prices doubled to $700 (KShs56,000) per kilogramme.

Hundreds of kilos of poached tusks “were later sent to China in diplomatic bags on the presidential plane,” reads the report, released on Thursday.

READ: China ivory burn draws calls for total trade ban.

According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, Chinese and Tanzanian officials, working with Chinese-led crime syndicates, are responsible for a wave of poaching that has killed off half of Tanzania’s elephants.

More than 10,000 elephants were killed in 2013 alone.

East Africa has emerged as the largest source of poached ivory, with Kenya and Tanzania leading the way, the report says. “Between 2009 and 2011, these two countries were the exporters of 16 out of 34 large scale ivory seizures (weighing 500kg or more) recorded worldwide, amounting to 35 tonnes.”